iABACUS: A Wi-Fi-Based Automatic Bus Passenger Counting System

Michele Nitti, Francesca Pinna, Lucia Pintor, Virginia Pilloni and Benedetto Barabino
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Michele Nitti: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Francesca Pinna: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Lucia Pintor: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Virginia Pilloni: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Benedetto Barabino: Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture, Land, Environment and Mathematics (DICATAM), University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: Since the early stages of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), one of the application scenarios that have been affected the most by this new paradigm is mobility. Smart Cities have greatly benefited from the awareness of some people’s habits to develop efficient mobility services. In particular, knowing how people use public transportation services and move throughout urban infrastructure is crucial in several areas, among which the most prominent are tourism and transportation. Indeed, especially for Public Transportation Companies (PTCs), long- and short-term planning of the transit network requires having a thorough knowledge of the flows of passengers in and out vehicles. Thanks to the ubiquitous presence of Internet connections, this knowledge can be easily enabled by sensors deployed on board of public transport vehicles. In this paper, a Wi-Fi-based Automatic Bus pAssenger CoUnting System, named iABACUS, is presented. The objective of iABACUS is to observe and analyze urban mobility by tracking passengers throughout their journey on public transportation vehicles, without the need for them to take any action. Test results proves that iABACUS efficiently detects the number of devices with an active Wi-Fi interface, with an accuracy of 100% in the static case and almost 94% in the dynamic case. In the latter case, there is a random error that only appears when two bus stops are very close to each other.

Keywords: smart phones; IEEE 802.11 standards; automatic passenger counting; mobile devices; cloud computing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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